In the latest episode in the long-running saga that is the phone hacking affair, Dan Evans, a former journalist at the News of the World and Sunday Mirror, has received a 10 month suspended sentence after…

That media ownership rules have been progressively relaxed in many democracies is certainly not news. But that Australia, with one of the most concentrated media markets in the world, is thinking of further…

How will new communications minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition approach the vexed issue of media reform?
AAP/Alan Porritt15 October 2013

The media has wasted little time reminding the Coalition government that its rigorous scrutiny of the former Labor government was par for the course. Journalists are snapping at the Coalition’s heels on…

Media organisations should push for media rights and freedoms on a more regular basis, not only when they’re under threat.
AAP/Lukas Coch27 March 2013

It is just a week since the Gillard government withdrew the four media reform bills for which it could not garner the necessary support from the crossbench MPs. The proposal that concerned me most as a…

After Conroy’s media reforms failed to find any standing, where does media regulation go from here?
AAP/Alan Porritt22 March 2013

To get an idea of how big an opportunity the federal government missed with its shambolic attempt at media reform, consider this: the last federal minister to achieve any substantive reform of media self-regulation…

It’s a great shame when political and commercial vested interests drown out compelling and principled arguments for free expression in this Australian media reform debate. First, I declare my own interest…

Two companies control 88% of Australia’s print media assets.
AAP/April Fonti21 March 2013

Australian media, and in particular the print media, stands out internationally among advanced democracies for its extreme concentration. Three owners – News Limited, Fairfax Media and APN News and Media…

The Courier Mail never retracted a story alleging Manning Clark was a spy, even though the Press Council ruled against them.
AAP/Dave Hunt20 March 2013

It is a matter of public record in Australia that my grandfather was a communist spy. That he wasn’t really one doesn’t always matter. Manning Clark, famous Australian historian and my father’s father…

Former News International executive Rebekah Brooks leaves the Old Bailey after appearing on charges of conspiring to bribe public officials. It was revelations about journalistic practises at News that inspired inquiries in Australia and the UK.
EPA/Andy Rain19 March 2013

There are at least two points of convergence in this week’s parliamentary deliberations on media freedom in Australia and the UK. Both are driven by reports – Finkelstein and Leveson respectively – responding…

Media bosses such as News Limited’s Kim Williams have been ferocious in their attacks on proposed media reform.
AAP/Lukas Coch19 March 2013

Anyone who has picked up the country’s biggest newspapers in the past week (and that of course includes the nation’s poll-fearing political powerbrokers) would naturally think communication minister Stephen…

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has come under concerted attack by many sections of the media over his proposed reforms. But what exactly are they?
AAP/Lukas Coch19 March 2013

For the past 12 months we’ve been warned on an almost daily basis that the sky is about to fall in on media freedoms in Australia, but what does the legislation before parliament this week actually propose…

With cabinet appearing to have sat on the proposal for a privacy tort, Stephen Conroy’s move to refer it to the Australian Law Reform Commission may effectively consign it to oblivion.
AAP14 March 2013

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has indicated the federal government will not be introducing a “privacy tort” in the near future. Instead, it will refer questions about the tort back to the Australian…

Stephen Conroy’s media reform package has led to cries of media censorship - but do even conservative spruikers really believe this?
AAP13 March 2013

Since the day in November 2011 that Justice Ray Finkelstein and University of Canberra Professor Matthew Ricketson held court in Melbourne, the mainstream media has been hostile to any suggestion of media…

Senator Stephen Conroy did not have a mandate for significant change.
AAP/Lukas Coch12 March 2013

Yesterday, communications minister Senator Stephen Conroy finally presented the government response to the Convergence Review and Finkelstein review. It is hard to know how many drafts of this long-awaited…